The primary Leonardo AW149 helicopter for the Polish Armed Forces has flown.
The primary Leonardo AW149 multirole helicopter for the Polish Land Forces carried out the primary take a look at flights on the firm’s plant in Vergiate, Italy, final month. The plane, photographed by our contributor Oscar Bernardi, nonetheless carries Italian experimental registration CSX82112 and it’s the first of 4 battlefield help helicopters for the Polish Military that can be in-built Italy.
The contract, signed last year and value 8.25B PLN gross (about 1.76B Euro), requires the supply of 32 AW149 helicopters with a logistics package deal (together with spare elements and gear for floor help of the helicopters) and a coaching and simulation package deal (full coaching of pilots and technical personnel in addition to as a set of superior simulators and coaching gear).
The opposite 28 helicopters can be produced by PZL-Świdnik, a Polish firm wholly owned by Leonardo, which can act as prime contractor at a manufacturing line for the helicopters in Poland. The AW149 can be delivered to the Polish Military between 2023 and 2029.
The AW149 helicopter is a multi-role navy helicopter able to day and evening flights. It has a most takeoff weight of 8,300 kg with potential improve to eight,600 kg. Its most pace is 313 km/h, cruise pace is 287 km/h, its vary is 958 km and its most flight time is 4 hours 55 minutes.
The AW149 can carry 19 passengers and has a crew of two pilots, however fundamental duties will also be carried out by a single pilot.
The AW149s, in a configuration similar to the wants of the Polish Armed Forces, can be geared up with commentary techniques, small arms, guided missiles, unguided rockets, and self-defense techniques. The helicopters may even be armed with the Hellfire missiles, 800 of those have been requested by Poland to the U.S. through a International Army Sale (FMS). The armament, relying on the sort and the helicopter’s configuration, could also be put in within the cabin or externally on the stub wings.
Coping with the position, the AW149’s main mission can be troops transportation and common help duties, however the helicopter may even be used Medical Evacuation, Fight SAR (Search And Rescue) and for cargo and provide transportation.
David Cenciotti is a journalist primarily based in Rome, Italy. He’s the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of many world’s most well-known and browse navy aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for main worldwide magazines, together with Air Forces Month-to-month, Fight Plane, and lots of others, masking aviation, protection, conflict, trade, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown a number of fight planes with completely different air forces. He’s a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Power, a non-public pilot and a graduate in Laptop Engineering. He has written 5 books and contributed to many extra ones.
